Tag: issues

Ryanair cut its forecast for full-year profit for the second time in three months on Friday, this time blaming lower-than-expected winter fares, and said it cannot rule out a further downgrade if Brexit causes unexpected developments. Europe’s largest low-cost carrier now expects profit after tax for its financial year to March 31 — excluding start-up losses at its Laudamotion unit — of between 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) and 1.1 billion euros, compared to a previous estimate of 1.1 billion

Ryanair cut its forecast for full-year profit for the second time in three months on Friday, this time blaming lower-than-expected winter fares, and said it cannot rule out a further downgrade if Brexit causes unexpected developments.

Europe’s largest low-cost carrier now expects profit after tax for its financial year to March 31 — excluding start-up losses at its Laudamotion unit — of between 1 billion euros ($1.14 billion) and 1.1 billion euros, compared to a previous estimate of 1.1 billion euros to 1.2 billion euros.

The Irish airline had originally forecast profits of 1.25 to 1.35 billion euros before October’s profit warning took account of a series of strikes across Europe during the summer that hit traffic and bookings, but have since subsided.

On Friday, Ryanair lay the blame squarely on lower than expected fares in the second half of its financial year. Those fares were set to fall by 7 percent, rather than the 2 percent previously flagged, due to short-haul overcapacity in Europe, it said.

Extending the official Brexit deadline for the U.K. could bring a wave of extra logistical and political problems for the European Union. Extending the departure beyond the agreed date would likely clash with European parliamentary elections that are set to take place between May 23 and 26. The chamber is made of lawmakers from all 28 European member countries, including the U.K., and is responsible for approving European policies, such as the Union’s total budget. Macron said Wednesday that the

Extending the official Brexit deadline for the U.K. could bring a wave of extra logistical and political problems for the European Union.

The ongoing deadlock has sparked a debate on the potential extension of Article 50 — the legal means by which the U.K. leaves the EU. However, there is strong opposition from some European lawmakers over giving more time to the U.K. to sort out its domestic politics.

The U.K. is set to leave the EU on March 29 — but this could change if the U.K. asks for an extension and the other 27 member nations accept the request. Extending the departure beyond the agreed date would likely clash with European parliamentary elections that are set to take place between May 23 and 26. The chamber is made of lawmakers from all 28 European member countries, including the U.K., and is responsible for approving European policies, such as the Union’s total budget.

“What we will not let happen, deal or no deal, is that the mess in British politics is again imported into European politics. While we understand the U.K. could need more time, for us it is unthinkable that Article 50 is prolonged beyond the European Elections,” Guy Verhofstadt, a member of the European Parliament and its representative in Brexit negotiations, said on Twitter on Wednesday.

His comments come at a time when U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May’s proposed Brexit deal suffered a historic defeat in the House of Commons on Tuesday. Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron weighed in on the possibility that the U.K. would have to push back its departure date.

Macron said Wednesday that the U.K. “will take more time (to overcome the Brexit impasse), maybe they will step over the European elections in order to find something else.”

Speaking to CNBC via email Friday, Seb Dance, member of the European Parliament for the U.K. Labour party, said the prospect of having Brexit and the European elections clashing “is a logistical headache.”

“The impact of delaying Brexit on the EU elections is certainly troublesome logistically speaking,” he said, “but politically speaking it shouldn’t make a difference as it is entirely possible that elections take place in the other member states without needing to take place in Britain.”

However, some argue that even politically, it would be troublesome, as European officials and institutions want to focus on campaigning and speaking to voters ahead of the vote. The wave of populist sentiment in Europe after the fallout of the sovereign debt crisis has raised concerns, among the traditional parties, about what the next European Parliament will look like.

According to a Brussels-based European official, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity surrounding the Brexit talks, an extension would likely mean that the U.K. would have to participate in the vote. This is because it would still technically be a member of the European Union.

Consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest level since before the U.S. presidential election in 2016 amid growing concerns over U.S. economic growth, according to data released Friday. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 90.7 this month — its lowest since October 2016 — from 98.3 in December, preliminary data showed. Economists polled by Refinitiv expected the index to fall to 96.4. “Aside from the direct economic impact from these various issues on the economy, the indirec

Consumer sentiment dropped to its lowest level since before the U.S. presidential election in 2016 amid growing concerns over U.S. economic growth, according to data released Friday.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 90.7 this month — its lowest since October 2016 — from 98.3 in December, preliminary data showed. Economists polled by Refinitiv expected the index to fall to 96.4.

“The loss was due to a host of issues including the partial government shutdown, the impact of tariffs, instabilities in financial markets, the global slowdown, and the lack of clarity about monetary policies,” said Richard Curtin, chief economist for the Surveys of Consumers. “Aside from the direct economic impact from these various issues on the economy, the indirect effect meant that half of all consumers believed that these events would have a negative impact on Trump’s ability to focus on economic growth.”

Curtin also said the survey showed the year-ahead economic outlook was the worst since mid-2014.

Futures were hovering near breakeven this morning as the market evaluated the impact of the failed Brexit vote. (CNBC)It’s a big morning for bank earnings, with Bank of America (BAC), Bank of New York Mellon (BK), Comerica (CMA), Goldman Sachs (GS), PNC Financial (PNC), and US Bancorp (USB) all set to report. After the bell reports today include CSX Corp. (CSX), H.B. The Labor Department will issue its December report on import and export prices at 8:30 a.m. (CNBC)The Federal Reserve issues its

Futures were hovering near breakeven this morning as the market evaluated the impact of the failed Brexit vote. The Dow is sitting less than 200 points away from escaping correction. The three U.S. major averages are coming off their highest closes in more than a month. (CNBC)

* European markets higher after May’s Brexit vote defeat (CNBC)

U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May had placed a motion before lawmakers in the lower house of Parliament, asking them to rubber stamp her withdrawal agreement with the European Union. The bill was rejected by 432 votes to 202, thought to be the largest in U.K. political history. (CNBC)

Two economic reports out today are housing-related: the Mortgage Bankers Association will be out with its weekly look at mortgage applications at 7 a.m. ET, while the National Association of Home Builders issues its monthly sentiment index at 10 a.m. ET. The Labor Department will issue its December report on import and export prices at 8:30 a.m. ET. (CNBC)

The Federal Reserve issues its Beige Book today, with its region-by-region assessment of the U.S. economy due out at 2 p.m. ET.

Why these major political issues ‘seem intractable’12 Hours AgoJesse Lentchner of BTIG says Brexit, U.S.-China trade and the government shutdown in America are issues that seem “intractable” because an “easy compromise” is not available to the leaders involved.

In a Thursday morning statement, China’s Commerce Ministry said the just-concluded round of trade talks with the U.S. were extensive and established a foundation for the resolution of each others’ concerns. Both parties, the Beijing ministry said, agreed to maintain close contact. The talks lasted for three days in Beijing — one day longer than had been previously announced, which analysts said indicated the discussions were making some progress. He added that the structural issues that made pro

In a Thursday morning statement, China’s Commerce Ministry said the just-concluded round of trade talks with the U.S. were extensive and established a foundation for the resolution of each others’ concerns.

Both parties, the Beijing ministry said, agreed to maintain close contact.

Here’s the full three-sentence statement, as translated from Chinese by CNBC:

From Jan. 7 to 9, China and the U.S. held discussions in Beijing at a vice-ministerial level over the issue of trade. Both sides enthusiastically implemented the important agreement of the heads of both countries, and held broad, deep and meticulous discussions on shared observations on trade issues and structural problems, laying the foundation for addressing areas of common concern. Both sides agreed to continue to keep in close contact.

The U.S. side had issued its own statement earlier in the day, noting a long list of outstanding issues, but also recognizing that China had pledged to purchase “a substantial amount of agricultural, energy, manufactured goods, and other products and services from the United States.”

The talks lasted for three days in Beijing — one day longer than had been previously announced, which analysts said indicated the discussions were making some progress.

Gao Feng, a spokesman for China’s Commerce Ministry, said Thursday afternoon that the length of the meeting indicated that both sides were serious and honest. He added that the structural issues that made progress during the talks included forced tech transfers and the protection of intellectual property rights.

Another signal that experts cheered: China’s top trade negotiator Liu He reportedly stopped by the negotiating room on Monday, which was unexpected given that the talks were just meant to be held at the vice-ministerial level.

During a Chinese foreign ministry briefing on Monday, spokesperson Lu Kang said that “China is sincere about properly resolving trade frictions on the basis of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit and reciprocity,” according to an official translation. He would not confirm a media report saying Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan will meet with US President Trump during the World Economic Forum’s 2019 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

In early December, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a temporary ceasefire, giving both sides until March to reach some agreement on trade and issues such as the forced transfer of technology.

Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated last year, putting global stock markets on edge. The U.S. announced tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, while Beijing countered with its own.

In the wake of the latest round of trade talks between officials from Washington and Beijing, outside observers are noting that some progress appears to have been made — but there’s still a long way to go before a meaningful deal. “There were several signs of modest progress from these mid-level talks. China, for its part, said in a Thursday morning statement issued by its Commerce Ministry that the just-concluded round of trade talks with the U.S. were extensive and established a platform for f

In the wake of the latest round of trade talks between officials from Washington and Beijing, outside observers are noting that some progress appears to have been made — but there’s still a long way to go before a meaningful deal.

On Wednesday, the U.S. trade delegation released a statement noting a long list of outstanding issues in the relationship between the world’s two largest economies — including “forced technology transfer, intellectual property protection, non-tariff barriers, cyber intrusions and cyber theft of trade secrets for commercial purposes, services, and agriculture.”

Still the official statement also recognized that China had pledged to buy “a substantial amount of agricultural, energy, manufactured goods, and other products and services” from the U.S. Some analysts said that language, in addition to the meeting extending to a previously unannounced third day, indicated some potential thawing in the dispute.

“There were several signs of modest progress from these mid-level talks. First, negotiations went a day over the original schedule, indicating enough substantive discussion to at least keep officials at the table. Day three reportedly focused on the more knotty structural issues raised by the US side in detailed demands presented to Beijing in May 2018,” a group of experts from political risk consultancy Eurasia Group wrote in a Wednesday note.

They added: “Second, (the U.S. Trade Representative’s) statement noted that China has pledged to purchase a ‘substantial amount’ of US exports, including agriculture, energy and manufactured goods. That language suggests that, as we expected, Beijing is carrying out a strategy of aggressively purchasing US goods — playing to (U.S. President Donald Trump’s) focus on reducing the trade deficit — in the hopes that it lessens the pressure on China to undertake difficult structural measures.”

China, for its part, said in a Thursday morning statement issued by its Commerce Ministry that the just-concluded round of trade talks with the U.S. were extensive and established a platform for future discussions.

“Both sides … held broad, deep and meticulous discussions on shared observations on trade issues and structural problems, laying the foundation for addressing areas of common concern,” the statement said, according to a CNBC translation of the original Chinese.

Even before the talks were extended into a third day, the analyst community was already seeing a positive sign when China’s top trade negotiator, Liu He, reportedly stopped by the negotiating room on Monday. Given the vice-ministerial level of the talks, that was interpreted as a strong signal that Beijing was taking negotiations seriously.

In early December, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to a temporary ceasefire, giving both sides until March to reach some agreement on trade and issues such as the forced transfer of technology.

Trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies escalated last year, putting global markets on edge. The U.S. announced tariffs on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, while Beijing countered with its own battery of levies.

Both parties, the Beijing ministry said, agreed to maintain close contact.

In response to the U.S. statement on the talks, U.S.-China Business Council President Craig Allen said in a release that his group was “pleased that the two governments had substantive discussions over the past three days.”

Still, he noted that the business community is concerned about more than just the overall balance of trade between the two economic superpowers — a problem that is at least partially addressed by Beijing’s pledge to purchase more U.S. goods and services.

“We urge both governments to use the time remaining in the 90-day negotiating period to make tangible progress on the important issues at the core of the current dispute: equal treatment of foreign companies in China, as well as China’s intellectual property and technology transfer policies,” Allen said.

Beijing has denied that it forces foreign companies to transfer technology to Chinese parties in exchange for market access, but it has in various ways acknowledged that it could do more to allow overseas players an equal footing within its borders. To what extent such reforms are truly on the Communist Party’s agenda remains a matter of debate.

Another “elephant in the room” in the trade relations between China and the U.S. is additional tariffs that both countries have imposed on each other’s products, said Eric Robertsen, head of global macro strategy at Standard Chartered.

“Now, trade is only one part of this, the bigger picture issues around intellectual property, forced sharing of technology et cetera I don’t think those get addressed in the short term,” Robertsen told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday.

“Remember, the thing that we have to solve for is getting to the end of the negotiating period and making sure that enough progress has been made so that tariffs not lifted, we still have that elephant in the room of tariffs,” he added.

Italian banks have gone through mergers, fund-raising measures and a great deal of effort to reduce the level of their bad loans since the euro zone sovereign debt crisis of 2011. But despite these endeavors, onlookers still see the sector as the biggest problem for Italy’s economy. This means the banks are now in a much healthier position to absorb potential losses with larger capital buffers. This was one of the ways the region dealt with many structural issues that the debt crisis revealed. H

Italian banks have gone through mergers, fund-raising measures and a great deal of effort to reduce the level of their bad loans since the euro zone sovereign debt crisis of 2011.

But despite these endeavors, onlookers still see the sector as the biggest problem for Italy’s economy.

“The big picture is that they have strengthened their balance sheets over the past few years, but they remain perhaps Italy’s weakest link,” Jack Allen, a senior European economist at Capital Economics, told CNBC via email.

The Italian banking system, on average, has increased its common equity tier 1 ratio from 6.9 percent in 2008 to 14.3 percent in 2017, according to analysis from the macroeconomic research firm. This means the banks are now in a much healthier position to absorb potential losses with larger capital buffers.

This was one of the ways the region dealt with many structural issues that the debt crisis revealed. However, more recently and on top of these legacy issues, Italian lenders have had to deal with another kind of problem: politics.

A general election in March last year showed strong public support for populist parties and, after months of uncertainty and intense negotiations, an anti-establishment coalition government came to power in June.

“Sticking with four wheels might lead to some stability issues when ‘walking,'” he told CNBC via email. “When two of the legs are lifted, the car could have balance issues with only two remaining wheels planted on terra firma. “The ultimate challenges … are uncertain parameters of terrain and ensuring the dynamic stability of the vehicle,” he said. “For example, in a realistic terrain, the vehicle may be challenged by regions causing tip-over, trapped wheels, or loss of traction. Montazeri added

However, Michael Whiteley, head of fuel cell engineering at UCL’s Electrochemical Innovation Lab, noted that while it was good to see Hyundai pushing boundaries, it was unlikely the Elevate concept would become a reality anytime soon.

“Sticking with four wheels might lead to some stability issues when ‘walking,'” he told CNBC via email. “When two of the legs are lifted, the car could have balance issues with only two remaining wheels planted on terra firma. Will we see this in the future? Possibly not in the near future. The concept is a great idea, and may very well evolve over time – (but) I don’t think that we are quite ready for this yet in terms of system cost and the feasibility issues of implementing such a vehicle to terrestrial application.”

Allahyar Montazeri, lecturer in engineering at Lancaster University, told CNBC via email Wednesday that the proposed design could take vehicle use in rough terrain to “the next level” – but he noted that the mechanics were complex.

“The ultimate challenges … are uncertain parameters of terrain and ensuring the dynamic stability of the vehicle,” he said. “For example, in a realistic terrain, the vehicle may be challenged by regions causing tip-over, trapped wheels, or loss of traction. Some regions are not traversable at all and others may cause disastrous system failures.”

Montazeri added that the concept demanded an advanced design, incorporating elements of artificial intelligence to analyse potentially dangerous terrain with minimal action from the vehicle’s operator.

The Shanghai composite declined by 0.26 percent to close at 2,526.46 while the Shenzhen composite slipped 0.117 percent to finish at about 1,299.89. Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese automaker Geely plummeted almost 11 percent after the company predicted flat sales for 2019. Investors were on the lookout for developments on the second day of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China. “China would need to significantly re-calibrate its industrial policies to fully meet the US trade team’s de

The Shanghai composite declined by 0.26 percent to close at 2,526.46 while the Shenzhen composite slipped 0.117 percent to finish at about 1,299.89. The Shenzhen component also fell 0.116 percent to close at 7,391.65.

Over in Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index was largely flat during its final hour of trading. Hong Kong-listed shares of Chinese automaker Geely plummeted almost 11 percent after the company predicted flat sales for 2019.

Investors were on the lookout for developments on the second day of trade negotiations between the U.S. and China.

China said on Monday that it is willing to resolve its trade disputes with the U.S. on an equal footing, according to Lu Kang, spokesman at the Chinese foreign ministry.

One economist expressed caution over the talks.

“It still looks like we’re talking more about superficialities … than some of the fundamental issues,” Simon Baptist, global chief economist at The Economist Intelligence Unit, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Tuesday morning.

“What really matters is these issues over market access, that’s the thing the U.S. firms care about. Having a level playing field when they’re competing in China … against the (state-owned enterprises) and others. And then also, the issues around intellectual property and technology transfer,” Baptist said.

“The EIU is still not optimistic about both sides coming to a substantive deal by 1st March,” said another EIU analyst, Nick Marro, said in a note. “China would need to significantly re-calibrate its industrial policies to fully meet the US trade team’s demands. The limited policy movement that we’ve seen so far suggests that a game-changing deal remains unlikely.”

Over in the U.S., Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday that U.S. tariffs have placed pressure on China’s economy and ability to create jobs to avert social unrest.

The U.S. and China slapped a series of punitive tariffs on each other’s goods last year, sparking concerns over a global economic slowdown.